This invention relates to a percutaneous needle with a distal end portion which can be attached to a receptacle such as a syringe (called herein the connector portion). The connector portion has an arm with lumen which communicates with a common passage from the receptacle to the needle. The arm has a one-way valve which prevents flow of fluid from the needle through the arm which acts as a conduit for insertion of a wire into the channel of the needle that has been inserted into a blood vessel. The connector portion having the arm may be provided as a separable adapter for use with a conventional needle hub or may be a part of the needle assembly.
Insertion of catheters and similar devices into the blood vessels for purposes of treatment or diagnosis plays a critical role in medical practice today. Present practices in radiology, in treatment and in diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, and in oncology and neurology require the entry of catheters into blood vessels. One of the more common uses of such catheters is in angioplasty wherein a balloon is inserted into the arterial vessel to dilate narrowed vessels. A guide wire is passed through a needle which has been inserted into the blood vessel. A catheter is then threaded on the guide wire into the blood vessel. Presently, after the needle is inserted into the blood vessel, the syringe is disassociated from the connector portion before the guide wire is inserted through the needle into the blood vessel. During this process, there is a considerable amount of bleeding from the connector portion of the needle assembly. Furthermore, the process requires at least two persons, since one person must remove the syringe from the connector portion of the apparatus while another inserts the wire through the lumen of the needle.
Many devices for multiple-purpose administration of fluids or medicaments and withdrawal of body fluids exist. However, they do not provide the means for entry of a guide wire through a needle into a blood vessel as does the invention disclosed herein. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,700, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses and claims a complex device for suctioning, for injecting fluids into the body and for disposing of various kinds of fluids from the body. The device is quite complex and would not be appropriate for use in admitting a guide wire into a blood vessel, especially into an artery.
Valves have been placed in the lumen of other devices. U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,449, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a urethral catheter system having a mitral valve in a one-way passage which prevents flow of fluid from the bladder from flowing down-stream, but will allow fluid from down-stream to pass through the valve.
U. S. Pat. No. 5,542,933, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses and claims an apparatus having a valve for controlling flow of fluids through a conduit such as a catheter. The valve means is a block which obstructs the flow through the conduit as the block is adjusted. There is no passage for admission of a wire.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,218 teaches a suction pool tip having separate passages for irrigation liquid flow and for suctioned flow. Flow through these passages is controlled by valve plungers. The apparatus is not appropriate for use in inserting a guide wire through a needle.
Needle assemblies having an arm with a rubber septum which is penetrated by a needle for purposes of instilling medicaments through a needle are known. However, a septum is not appropriate for use with a guide wire, since the wire must, of necessity, have a flexible tip that will not damage a blood vessel. Such a wire is not sufficiently sharp or hard to insert though a septum, since a wire that would readily penetrate the septum would damage the blood vessel.
This invention provides a needle assembly comprising a needle portion and a connector portion, said connector portion having a first entry, a second entry, and a third entry, all entries leading to a common passage, said common passage being conical in shape, to provide means of guidance of a linear object inserted through said second entry toward said third entry, and wherein said first and said third entry are positioned approximately opposite each other while said second entry admits entrance to an arm which projects from the common passage at an angle of 20xc2x0 to 60xc2x0 from a line which would pass thought said first and second entries. The connector portion having the common passage may be separable from the needle portion.